Key Point of Passage: Jacob’s family committed with Jacob to follow only God at Bethel, where God had appeared to Jacob in his time of need.

Memory Verse: God chose Jacob instead of Esau (Romans 9:12-13).

Questions for Discussion:

1) God asked Jacob to go back to Bethel where He had appeared to Jacob in a dream of a stairway to heaven. Did God promise to always be with Jacob that day? Did God keep His promise?

2) Jacob also promised that day to worship only God. But Jacob’s family had been worshipping other gods. When Jacob asked his family to stop worshipping all other gods besides the Lord, did they obey and give up their gods?

God told Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation of people—he was. God told the Israelites that He would provide for them in the desert—He did. God told Joshua that the wall of Jericho would fall if the people marched around it for seven days—it did. God told Mary that she would have a baby boy—she did.

Jesus said He would die and rise again three days later—He did!

Honesty is important because it builds trust. Honesty is choosing to be truthful in whatever you say and do. What God says is true; He has shown us that time and time again. And that’s one of the reasons we know we can trust God.

But the same should be true in our own lives. If we want other people to trust us, we need to live honest lives. When we tell the truth and we follow through with our promises, other people learn to trust us. But when we cover up who we are, what we’ve done, or we constantly break our promises, then the people around us stop trusting us. They begin to wonder if, in the Moment of Truth, can you be trusted?

The monthlymemory verse is: “An honest person has respect for the Lord,”Proverbs 14:2a, NIrV. Living a life of honesty shows that we respect God and the people we care about. We can find a way to be truthful and still careful of the feelings of those we care about.

In Week One’s Bible story, Jacob’s sons lie to him about what’s happened to Joseph(Genesis 37:17-36; 45:25-28). They broke their father’s heart by telling him Joseph had been attacked by animals. Our Bottom Line is: When you are not truthful, you can hurt the people you care about. Regardless of our reasons for lying, someone eventually gets hurt.

In our Week Two Bible story, we meet Gehazi, Elisha’s trusted servant (2 Kings 5, NIrV). When Gehazi lies about accepting gifts, he can no longer be trusted and suffers a great loss.Our Bottom Line is: When you are not truthful, you lose trust. Honesty is also about consistently speaking and living truthfully and acting on what we say.

In Week Three’s Bible story, Zacchaeus was a thief and considered a traitor to his people (Luke 19:1-10). When he decided to follow Jesus, Zacchaeus worked hard to earn his community’s trust. Our Bottom Line is: When you are truthful and make things right, you build trust. When we admit we have not been truthful, we can earn back other’s trust.

In Week Four, Judas betrays his Teacher and Friend for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16, 20-25, 45-50; 27:1-5). Judas spent every day with the Truth but still chose dishonesty. Our Bottom Line is: You can lie so much that it’s hard to remember what’s true. So often in our lives, one lie leads to another as we have to cover up the stories we told before.

Week Five is Easter! In this week’s Bible story, we’re examining some of the amazing things Jesus said and the most amazing thing He did (John 3:3, 16; 14:1-6, 28-29; John 18-20). Jesus made some incredible statements about Himself that even some of His followers had trouble believing. But our Bottom Line is: When Jesus came back from the dead, it proved that what He said was true. When we have doubts about God, we can remember He kept the biggest promise of all.

Living an honest life may sometimes be hard. It might mean admitting when we’ve done something wrong or made an embarrassing mistake. It might mean passing up a chance to sneak an extra turn and win the game while your friend isn’t looking. Or it may be as simple as following through on the things we have promised. Whatever the circumstances, this month look for ways to be honest so that others can trust you.

Our Bible teaching helps us understand the principle of peace (Colossians 1:20; 3:15). It tells us that peace originated with God’s love for us and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Since we can receive such peace from God, we can live peaceably with other people.

This week our Bottom Line is: God proved He cared for us, so we can prove we care for others. Our ultimate example of peace is Christ. Because He made peace between God and us, we should strive to let peace rule in our own hearts and lives.

Ourmemory verse this month is: “So let us do all we can to live in peace. And let us work hard to build each other up.”Romans 14:19, NIrV Making peace takes the humility of giving up what we think is right to help others see that we care.